Tags that transmit beacon signals can be used to track a number of assets within a given, discrete area. The tags are attached to assets and are used to track the assigned assets within the area. A common problem with using beacon signals, however, is the collision of multiple beacon signals emanating from a number of tags. Previous methods to avoid these collisions include sending many complicated signals over a long time period. In order to avoid collisions from multiple beacons being sent in overlapping intervals, existing systems typically use one of two approaches; on demand querying and collision avoidance. In the on-demand approach, tags only transmit when they receive a probe from a beacon receiver. In the collision avoidance approach, the tag first listens to the medium and avoids transmitting when other tags are transmitting. Both of these approaches require the tag to have both a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver adds complexity and cost to the tag. These drawbacks have until now limited the size of the tag and greatly increased the overall cost of the tags and the system for monitoring the tags.
Further, in order to distinguish different assets, known tags typically embed a unique identification (ID) code assigned to the asset in their transmitted beacon signals. But, this may reveal proprietary information to an undesired person. Such a person could monitor the set of unique ID codes to determine the quantity of assets in an inventory. Changes in the set of ID codes may signal to an adversary changes in the inventory. If the adversary learned that a unique ID code is assigned to a particular asset then the adversary may use the beacon signal of the asset tag to surreptitiously track the asset.